How We Saved Date Nights with the Tiniest Third Wheel

I received compensation from Dr. Scholl’s® to write this post. All opinions are my own.

It was definitely a transition going from dating my hubby while I was pregnant to dating with an infant. And, if I’m being honest, I’ll subtly admit that I HAVE LOVED NOT BEING PREGNANT ANYMORE. When I was pregnant, going out for date night just wasn’t that fun because everything hurt and nearly all food was nauseating. It became less and less of a regular thing over those long 9 months. So after I had Avery, my hubby and I committed to regular date nights because, well…we missed each other. And I missed having an excuse to get dolled up since I was in the brand-new newborn phase, constantly in my jammies! Within the first few weeks after she was born, the nights became hard for Avery and she began the infamous & dreaded “witching hour” fussiness from 5-11 pm every night. She wanted to nurse every 1.5-2 hours and wouldn’t fall asleep in between. It was rough. I started to wonder if we saved our date nights and errand-running for the evenings when Avery was experiencing all the witching hour feels then maybe that might ease things up. AND IT DID! Target and grocery errands were saved for the evenings. Date nights were scheduled. Lemons slowly turned into lemonade. I figured out that Avery would become distracted with the new surroundings and she enjoyed it…as long as we stayed moving! Every weekend we hired our favorite neighbor babysitter to stay with our older 3 kiddos while Aaron and I went out for a date with our little sidekick, Avery. I’d bring my nursing cover, ring sling wrap, and a stroller. We spent our first few at the malls. Since she was still a sleepy newborn, she’d fall asleep in her car seat. We’d head right on over to a favorite cafe or restaurant. Then we’d pop her in the stroller or I’d wear her in my ring sling, whichever made her happy during her typical fussy evening, nursing as much as she needed. As long as I kept bouncing or moving, we’d shop and talk the night away! Date night saved 🙂

Since I’m usually wearing my yoga pants or jammies all day long I really enjoy dressing up for our dates. NY Fashion Week is coming up! I can’t wait to see the new trends and crazy prints + hardware plastered all over the new footwear for the year. Even though I’m a busy mom, I adore fashion and do what I can to scope out the new looks for the year. I absolutely LOVE heels! But I also want to move around comfortably without sacrificing my favorite styles. Since Avery needed to be on the move to help lull her to sleep and keep her feeling calm, we needed to create date nights that combined lots of flirty chit chat with tons of walking. The easiest way for me to wear heels while doing so much walking is to wear Dr. Scholl’s Stylish Step™ High Heel Relief insoles or Ball of Foot cushions insoles. These insoles give me that all day comfort and relieves the familiar pain I feel in heels so that I can wear my favorite pair of heels all evening long….while wearing my darling babe in my sling! They’re available in the foot care aisle near the pharmacy at Target! Right now Target is offering a Cartwheel promotion for Stylish Step™, find out more here.

On Instagram, I often get comments from other mamas that ask how on earth I find the time to get dressed up with such a busy group of kids. I’ve had different seasons in my life where I especially enjoyed things like cooking, or baking, crafting, exercising, school, fashion. I’m currently in a very busy, family focused season of my life, but I’ve found that I truly enjoy dressing up for special occasions or sometimes just for fun. For me, sometimes it just feels fun to glam up and try out the newest trends. When it’s a day that I know I’ll be dolling up for the evening I’ll have my oldest 3 kids skip their naps. This means they’ll be uber tired around 5pm and want to chill. I try to time Avery’s nap with either feeding the older kids dinner while I’m curling my hair or putting makeup on. And sometimes that means my curling iron is on for hours since I have to hurry and help a kid get a drink or maybe wiping bums. At the end of the day, dressing up can be one of my favorite things. (Something my 5- and 3-year-old girls definitely agree with since they put on about a dozen different princess dresses each day) I don’t wear makeup every day. I forget to wear deodorant sometimes. But getting super dolled up 2-3x/week is my jam.

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2 Comments

Chelsea

September 8, 2017 / 5:37 pm

I love this idea! My baby is 3 weeks old and I’m starting to go stir crazy every evening when the fussies kick in. It would definitely help my mood to get dressed up and go out with my husband like we used to 🙂
I have a question for you about your newborns- did any of them make loud grunting/straining noises in the early hours of the morning (3-6)? If so, did you find anything that helped? I can’t sleep and I have no idea what it could be! You would think I’d know since this is my 3rd but I just can’t remember!!

Hi Chelsea! Let me know how those date nights come!! SO, i’ve never had loud grunty babies BUT my sister in law jut had her 4th baby and the baby is that exact same way. Loud grunting/straining all. the. time. It calmed down a bit once baby turn 7-8 weeks old. They decided early on to put baby in the nursery to sleep to help. But nothing worked for the noisiness! ughh! They give baby gas drops to help with burping. I know there’s a legit syndrome called Grunting Baby Syndrome, so you’re not alone and it’s normal and it’ll calm down soon. I’m obviously no doctor lol, so check with your pedi! xo